DAPHNIS AND CHLOE

London: Willow Press, 1982. No. 31 OF 55 COPIES SIGNED by artist and binder Susan Allix. 300 x 230 mm. (12 x 9"). 4 p.l., 91, [1] pp., [1] leaf (colophon). Translated by A. M. Burnett.
WHIMSICAL PICTORIAL MOROCCO BY SUSAN ALLIX (stamp-signed on rear pastedown), the wrap-around design showing Daphnis and Chloe in blind-tooled brown morocco silhouetted against a blue morocco sea and cream morocco sky, beneath the lovers a blind-tooled vine with 11 inlaid or onlaid citron morocco leaves, blind-stamped lettering to front cover, turquoise blue pastedowns and white free endpapers painted with blue, fore edge of front free endpaper cut into wave pattern, showing a glimpse of the yellow handmade paper front flyleaf, edges untrimmed and lightly brushed with blue paint. In the original felt-lined tan linen clamshell box, blind-lettered cream and blue morocco label on back. With etched frontispiece and 20 etchings, 14 in color and six in sepia, by Allix. ◆As new.

This is a modern take on the most popular romance of ancient Greece from book artist Susan Allix, who is responsible for the binding, illustrations, and the printing, through her Willow Press imprint. The third century pastoral romance was newly translated from the Greek by Andrew M. Burnett, and illustrated with etchings based on Allix's travels in Greece. The binding, in Allix's words, "creates an atmosphere of the sea, landscape, and figures in the story." Born in 1943 and educated at the Royal College of Art, Allix began her career as a printmaker before creating her first hand-crafted book in 1973. Mark Dimunation, Chief of the Rare Book Division at the Library of Congress, wrote of Allix's work: "her books launch you on a visual journey. Each book is a voyage propelled by color, texture, image, impression, and material. . . . Because she insists on creating the entire book--from letterpress to illustration to binding--her work has a certain recognizable aesthetic; a malleable signature that responds to the particular character of a piece, but is still unquestionably hers. Allix conceives each book visually. 'I am concerned with visual things so I see books as full of colour and form in a pictorial sense as well as through the images created in my mind by the words, and through the sculptural qualities a book possesses.' The real narrative of her books is the flow of color and image as they move throughout the piece.".